Obituary

Chris Bates (18 April 1938 – 7 January 2018)

Chris Bates was one of the foremost world experts in the science of micronutrients. During his long career he conducted basic studies that charted the complex ways micronutrients work, performing studies with children and adults, mostly in the UK and Africa. He developed methods for measuring micronutrient status which are used by doctors, researchers and governments around the world. Possibly his most important and long-standing involvement was with the UK’s National Diet and Nutrition Surveys where he was responsible for the analysis and interpretation of micronutrient status for the UK government from the early 1990’s until he retired, and he continued as an active adviser for the surveys right up until his death.

Chris was born in Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex and attended a local primary school. He was an Old Blue having attended Christ’s Hospital School from 1949-56 where he studied for O and A levels. He went up to Oxford in 1957 where he received his undergraduate and doctoral research training. He earned a BA in Natural Science (biochemistry) (Magdalen, 1957-61) and then a MRC scholarship for his Doctorate in the Department of Biochemistry, headed at the time by Sir Hans Krebs on the metabolism of amino sugars. Chris recently wrote that ‘this was an exciting era for biochemistry, when many newly-recognised pathways were being explored, and some very similar approaches and technologies were being applied to the rapidly-evolving field of nutrition. It included the unravelling of functions of nutritionally-essential ‘micronutrients’, alias the dozen or so vitamins and trace elements that had previously identified by Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins as ‘accessory food factors’. He met and married his wife Catey during this time. Chris received postdoctoral funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the US National Institutes of Health to work at Yale University School of Medicine on the development of new cancer chemotherapy drugs. He returned to England in 1966 and took up a position at the MRC Dunn Nutritional Laboratory in Cambridge working firstly with Dr Charles Levine on collagen and vitamin C. Chris’ research later expanded into the other water soluble vitamins and further into micronutrients. He remained with the MRC throughout his career, firstly at The Dunn, then at Human Nutrition Research, and finally at The Elsie Widdowson Laboratory. Over the years many PhD students, post docs, and visiting researchers from all over the world had the privilege of working with, and being mentored by, him.

Chris’ name in the nutrition field became a byword for his extraordinary, encyclopaedic knowledge of vitamin biology, and his wisdom and ability to provide a rapid, detailed and balanced scientific response, often over several closely written pages and seemingly almost before the question had been posed.

Chris was much more than a micronutrient expert for those of us who studied and worked closely with him. He was a kind and most generous gentle-man, who hid his light under a bushel, always thinking of others and never expecting praise, never making anyone feel stupid and always answered and asked questions in informative and constructive ways. He was known for his understated, but very humorous, dry wit and had no time for the ill-informed claims, often made in the media, of the seemingly magical powers of vitamins and other dietary supplements. Everyone will miss Chris’ wisdom and company but he will always be cherished in memory and through his writings.

Chris loved walking, holidays in the Lake District, classical music, flute playing, reading and collecting books, his village local history group, writing and researching while living life to the full enjoying seeing his grandchildren grow up. He is survived by Catey, daughter Gemma, son-in-law Mark, and grandchildren Oliver and Imogen.